At the end of his
life, during 1924-25,
having worked intensely to develop anthroposophy, especially during the
last 23 years of his life, Rudolf Steiner formulated a number of "leading
thoughts", trying to summarize anthroposophy as in an extract.
From this perspective, he expressed:

"Anthroposophy
is a path of knowledge, to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the
Spiritual in the universe. It arises in man as a need of the heart, of
the life of feeling; and it can be be justified only inasmuch as it can
satisfy this inner need. He alone can acknowledge anthroposophy, who finds
in it what he himself in his own inner life feels impelled to seek. Hence
only they can be anthroposophists who feel certain questions on the nature
of man and the universe as an elemental need of life, just as one feels
hunger and thirst."